American Women: Equal Rights or Equal Misery?

Women’s rights to vote, equal pay for comparable jobs as men, and freedom from any oppression due to gender: these are all good and noble goals to strive for in America. After all, our country was founded on the belief that we were created equal and we have the inalienable rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”[1]

It took a while for some of these objectives, such as the right to vote, to be achieved for women but through perseverance and an innate sense of this being a just goal, we won that right.

How are we doing on the other objectives? Are we receiving equal pay as our male counterparts? Are we being oppressed simply because we are women? Or, should we be asking a far more important question altogether, such as: will any of these aspirations matter if our economy implodes and there are no jobs to be had? There is no difference in discrimination against women or men between the level of pay, oppression, and job opportunity for the unemployed. Women and men are equally terrified when they can’t provide for themselves or their families.

Economic Tailspin

Our country is in an economic tailspin. Our national debt is nearly $16 trillion,[2] our economy grew at an anemic 1.5% rate in the second quarter of 2012,[3] and the real unemployment rate (U6) is 15%.[4] Add to this list of misery, the cost/taxes of Obamacare (at least 20 of them),[5] the massive increase of Federal regulatory burdens on businesses, the war on fossil fuels, and you can fully expect these figures to get worse. Businesses fold, move over seas, and stop hiring under these types of conditions. This is truly oppression and hardship of a magnitude we have not seen in decades.

Women in business have made great progress over the years in their efforts to start and operate their own businesses. As of 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated there were almost 8 million non-farm businesses owned by women, an increase of over 20% from 2002.[6] However, what good is this achievement when the Obama Administration has consistently instituted  business regulations and policies that hinder the growth and very existence of these much-needed companies?

It should be no surprise to President Obama that the number one concern of most Americans (women and men alike) since he took office are jobs and the economy. So why hasn’t he met with his Jobs Council in the last 6 months, when during that same time period he attended over 100 fundraisers for his reelection?[7][8] It appears that there is one job he’s very focused on and it’s his own.

“You Didn’t Build That” (The Government Did)

In a speech President Obama let his true ideology come through loud and clear when he said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”[9] He communicated that if you have succeeded as a business owner the government gets the credit and the thanks. Never mind the fact that without a thriving private economy to tax, there is no government revenue. Business owners all over the country were in an uproar over this statement, and justifiably so. They know who put in the hard work and risked the money to get these businesses up and running; it certainly wasn’t Uncle Sam!

Should we thank the government for the highest corporate tax rate (39.2%) in the world[10] that pushes companies to expand overseas in order to compete, costing us much needed jobs in the process? Every dollar taken by the government in taxes is less money that companies have available to reinvest and grow their businesses. No growth, no new jobs.

The added cost of the medical device tax (one of many) embedded in the 2700 pages of the Obamacare law has already forced many healthcare businesses to cancel expansion plans.[11] [12] People in communities all over the country who waited expectantly for a chance at those new jobs are having their hopes and dreams crushed.

Should we be grateful to this administration that implements costly, not to mention unreasonable, regulations on the fossil fuel industry even though America’s very foundation, and thus every business and household, is dependent on oil and gas to survive? Could an electrical grid blackout occur in large areas of the U.S., the way it recently did in India,[13] due to the expected closures of many of our coal-powered electrical facilities? It’s a very real possibility, thanks in large part to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) hostility towards the coal industry.[14]

Government Red Tape

Are business owners thanking this administration for the nightmare of red tape (i.e. regulations) they must wade through, costing them valuable time and money that forces them to increase prices to consumers? There has been a 52% increase in regulations under this President and more regulations are on the books than ever before in the history of our nation.[15]

Are you aware that the Obama Administration wrote over 80,000 pages of new regulatory law last year? The Federal Register currently has hundreds of thousands of regulations![16] [17] Can you imagine a teacher inflicting an outrageous number of rules like this onto our children and expecting them to be able to know and accurately follow them, much less to thrive? How many businesses have been “closed” before they ever open due to this type of oppression?

An April 2012 U.S. Chamber of Commerce poll of small-business executives with 500 or fewer employees found that concern over government business regulations top the list of impediments for hiring and expanding their businesses. The July 2012 survey added the Obamacare tax and penalties to that list of obstacles.[18] Since small business is the backbone of our economy, this survey is alarming.

So there you have it. Whether you are a female business owner or a woman desperately looking for a job, you are the one being oppressed under this administration. But, hey, at least as the economy continues to decline, jobs become scarcer, the business revenues shrink (thus tax revenues), and the cost of everything continues to rise, women and men will be equally oppressed, if that is any consolation to us.

It’s not a consolation for me and I hope it’s not for you. We can change things though, through our hard work and perseverance. We can get informed about the economy and understand why the things the Obama Administration has been doing have been dangerous. Like spending trillions more than you take in does not make for a balanced budget and stable economy (every mom running a household knows this one). We can also get involved at the local level in our communities by connecting with other grassroots conservatives, by joining our school boards, and by supporting political leaders who support true capitalism.  Don’t wait for someone else to challenge the progressive policies that  are driving our country over the fiscal cliff.